What Would You Build in This Shop?
A 2,200-square-foot outbuilding in Parker is about as close to a blank sheet of paper as a garage gets. We want your spec sheet.
Most garages in listings show up finished. Epoxy floors, matching cabinets, a neon sign somebody else picked out. You pay for their taste, then spend a year undoing it.
This one skips all that. That's exactly why it caught our eye.
The Tree Farm Shop
The property sits on 13.91 acres in the Sterling Tree Farm neighborhood of Parker, in Douglas County. It's a 1997 custom estate listed at $1,875,000, and the house holds up its end: five bedrooms, five baths, 4,252 square feet, two primary suites, a remodeled kitchen with Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances, and Rocky Mountain views with open space behind it. There's an oversized four-car attached garage, too.
But the reason it's in The Garage Report is the building at the end of the second driveway.
The listing describes a 2,200-square-foot outbuilding with room for up to 10 vehicles, an RV-height garage door, and a half bath. Outside, it's been refreshed with new fire-resistant siding and a freshly paved approach framed by stacked stone. Inside, it's refreshingly raw. Bare concrete. Exposed wood trusses. White wall panels, strip lighting, a couple of roll-up doors, lumber racks, and a rolling parts-bin cart left over from somebody's projects.
Nothing to rip out. Nobody else's decisions to live with.
A quick reality check on "10 cars"
Do the math and 2,200 square feet split across 10 vehicles is 220 square feet each. That's roughly a parking stall with nothing left over for opening doors, walking around, or a workbench. It's storage math, not shop math.
Build it out as a working collector space, with room to open doors and roll a creeper, and most people would probably land closer to six or seven cars plus a work bay. Add the attached four and you're still looking at 10 or more usable spaces on one property. Around Denver, that's rare.
Two things any serious buyer should confirm before sketching plans. First, the clear height under the trusses. The photos don't show it and the listing doesn't state it, and that number decides whether stacking lifts are on the table. Second, which garage the listing's "heated," "220 volts," and "floor coating" features apply to. The outbuilding photos show bare concrete, so those details may describe the attached garage.
Where the big decisions live
A shell like this forces you to answer the questions that finished garages answer for you.
Floor. Polished concrete, epoxy, or interlocking tile. Each one changes how the room looks, how it cleans, and how it handles a dropped wrench or a fluid leak.
Lifts. A two-post for real work, four-posts for stacking storage, or both. Your ceiling height makes this call before you do.
Climate. Colorado winters make heat close to mandatory. The bigger question is whether you want a space you can work in comfortably in January and July, which means insulation, heat, and maybe cooling.
Power. 240V circuits for a welder, compressor, or EV charging. Hard-plumbed air lines. More outlets than you think you need.
Light. The existing fluorescent tubes work. Bright LED panels make detail work and paint correction a different experience.
Layout and flow. Where the cars park, where the work happens, where the RV or trailer goes, and how you move vehicles in and out without a 12-point shuffle.
The room nobody needs and everybody wants. A lounge corner, a bar, a display bay with a spotlight on the car you'd never sell. The half bath is already there, which makes this one easier to justify.
Send us your spec sheet
Here's the question for you: if this building were yours, how would you build it?
Hit reply on this week's Garage Report, or email Ilan at ilan@rallyregroup.com, and tell us:
What's going in it (cars, bikes, RV, race car, project, all of the above)
How many bays, and what's the layout
Lift or no lift, and what kind
Floor finish
Heat, cooling, and insulation plans
Power, air, and lighting
Your one splurge
Ballpark budget, if you're willing to share
We'll pull together the best builds and feature them in an upcoming issue. Sketches, napkin drawings, and Pinterest boards all count.
Already know your specs?
If you read that list and had answers ready for every line, you're not just daydreaming. You're describing a search. Ilan builds personalized MLS searches around exactly this kind of criteria, so the right garage finds you instead of the other way around.
The Tree Farm Shop
Sterling Tree Farm, Parker, Douglas County
$1,875,000 | 5 bed | 5 bath | 13.91 acres | 14-car total garage capacity
Listed by Kim Jarrett, Compass Denver. The MLS provides listing details and should be independently verified.
